SILVER GOODS
THE FACTORY

In 1890, goldsmith Johan Ernst's (1867-1924) workshop and new shop, J. Ernsts Guldsmedeforretning, was built at Østergade 57, Assens. This was the start of the company J. Ernst's Silverware Factory. The factory produced table silver, knives, spoons and forks, which were sold throughout the country's jewelry stores, as well as at retail outlets in Copenhagen, and by dealers in Norway and Sweden.

The factory was mechanized in the 1910s and reached its production peak in the 1920s. Until the opening of Bergs Sølvvarefabrik (1918), the factory was responsible for the industrial production of silver products in Assens.

In 1924, Frederik Ernst took over the factory from his father and was the man who led the factory through some of the hardest periods of decline that followed. The factory closed in 1954/55, while the store continued to sell until Frederik Ernst's death in 1976.